Follow the sun is also used by software development teams that are spread out across global sites. With many sites all working on the same project, the daily handoff can become a bottleneckespecially if the other team doesnt understand the problem or if their work introduces a new problem. 0000001156 00000 n Mechanisms for transferring work in progress to the next site is the core idea of FTS. Nataliya Andreychuk is the CEO of Viseven. 0000067044 00000 n How do companies similar to your own handle support? Understand and optimize your cloud infrastructure today with Lucidscale. [8] Christian Doerr. In reality, setting up a Help Center doesnt have to be a monumental task, and by offering community forums, you can give your customers the chance to help each other. Your global customers will appreciate that bugs and other issues can be resolved quickly and that they dont have to wait for a team in a different time zone to fix the problem. 0000002728 00000 n 0000013868 00000 n [1] Erran Carmel, J Alberto Espinosa, and Yael Dubinsky. A detailed analysis needs to be done in order to understand the advantages to be gained in time. Read world-renowned marketing content to help grow your audience, Read best practices and examples of how to sell smarter, Read expert tips on how to build a customer-first organization, Read tips and tutorials on how to build better websites, Get the latest business and tech news in five minutes or less, Learn everything you need to know about HubSpot and our products, Stay on top of the latest marketing trends and tips, Join us as we brainstorm new business ideas based on current market trends. Do we get enough tickets from each timezone to support a customer service agent. Still, it did, and that is where our plan and ability to coordinate staff remotely across the world helped keep all the processes running. 0000002842 00000 n Cameron [13] highlights the example of FTS application at EDS (now a part of HP). They do it by starting a team in Colorado at 8am (MST). 0000065007 00000 n Based on these observations and the results presented in literature, it can be said that FTS approach is not widely used in practice because of its limitations and challenges. Finally, communication is a key component for successful follow the sun implementation. Though the teams faced initial setbacks due to cultural differences and technical glitches, by re-orienting their thinking they could successfully implement agile practices across all locations on a single working codebase. Pearson Education India, 1995. ICGSE 2009. Communication through emails and Slack with 16+ hour gaps between responses can lead to deployment missteps, security breaches staying open longer, and IT engineers completing redundant work., With a follow the sun model, on the other hand, daily handoffs of projects and tasks build better communication lines between global offices and their network engineers. The tools you use should emphasize team collaboration and the automation of reporting, scheduling, planning, and progress tracking. This workflow model is specifically designed to help address customers' needs without regard to geolocation or time zone. But other companies may determine Self-service is often the best place to start when building out global support, but some companies overlook self-service because it feels like there arent enough resources to build out a nice-looking repository of help articles. Consider these basic steps and questions you need to ask before diving into a follow the sun methodology. The constant workflow increases response time and reduces time to market. 0000063267 00000 n Another consideration is the way you use technology. %PDF-1.7 % Theres no reason to leap forward with global support if most of your customers are in only one or two regions. Since hand-offs are such an important aspect of Follow-the-Sun software development, recent research studied hand-offs management. The effective utilization of code repositories and version control management systems is crucial to the success of the FTS approach. In order to understand and use FTS, some key principles on which FTS is based are mentioned in this section. The follow-the-sun model has proven to be successful for our business as team members were relocating and searching for safety while making sure none of the clients felt what they felt. Although the advantages presented above could take your business to the next level, adopting a follow the sun model comes with its own set of challenges and disadvantages. Tools for estimating and planning schedules, allocation of project tasks, sprint management, progress tracking are essential utilities for front line managers. The implementation of FTS, if not practiced correctly, may result in failures and projects going over budget [10]. 8. But in reality not many companies are following this methodology due to a few documented successes and a significant lag in FTS research. The FTS model has proven its potential for decreasing time to market, accelerating product development and ensuring consistent client communication. Some companies go with the more traditional application of follow the sun: which means providing anytime, anywhere, 24/7/365 support. Christian Doerr, You can, however, start planning for it. "Follow the sun" is a service and support model designed to address customer's needs regardless of geographic location or time-zone. Are you able to provide 24-hour service at this time? Within the FTS approach, one of the teams always plays a leading role, being responsible for strategic planning, quality assessment and much more. Infosys concluded that applicability of FTS was limited and highly specific to the nature of the task at hand. The efficiency of the number of hours per day spent on actual development is much higher in the FTS model when compared with traditional software development [1]. Service and development sites are spread out across many time zones, allowing work to be passed from location to location. video calls) and process documentation. Since there is no overlap during the hand-off and the hand off happens, for example, via e-mail, instead of via the phone or other communication tool. We would like some form of handover application within Microsoft teams to assist with a "Follow the Sun" support model. HWY1S%lI^t#ByFwOC+aPvrsjL hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(53, 'dfcc1cf6-fca7-455f-9c43-26ff2fba10ed', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"}); Get expert insights straight to your inbox, and become a better customer success manager. 0000015792 00000 n The "Follow-the-Sun" support model is a structured model that works best for service desks that work around the clock. Another important benefit of the FTS model is the opportunity to learn more about new markets and lay the foundation for the further development of the definite regional market. [18] Josiane Kroll, Rafael Prikladnicki, Jorge LN Audy, Erran Carmel, and JudeFernandez. In California, teams start in waves at 7am, 8am, and 9am (PST). 0000067800 00000 n FtVz:-zn>\M~J/CeTb{POj"}"yX-hD]0)u&Z?C4SX0;53mHp 8Q[M#A.l{ GrhhXE3rVY)^a. + endstream endobj 135 0 obj <>stream Because of these reasons FTS is best suited for Agile. The table in Fig. It is a model in which work from one site is handed over to another, which is many time zones away (for example, U.S.A to India), in order for the work to be advanced while one team rests for the night. With follow the sun model, support timings are always during the day which means all your agents will be able to perform much better without requiring to alternate shifts which can affect their productivity Global visibility: Follow the sun is a great way for your company to sell globally right from the start. There was a 30 and 60 minutes overlap between locations to enable the daily handover of tasks. In fact, a study conducted by the CMO Council found that arranging technical assistance and 24/7 accessibility were the top two ways that companies could improve product experience for users.. Companies large and small are able to provide 24-hour service without putting the burden on one site and requiring employees to work late shifts or overtime. If you dont have international offices, create a plan that uses staggered start times to cover the time zones you are focusing on. That being said, we have a few tips for you if you decide to implement this model: Now, before you jump into a follow the sun customer support model, let's determine if it's necessary for your company. 0000069194 00000 n Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free customer journey map templates. A clear path will help your troubleshooting teams and engineers coordinate and get to the bottom of the issue faster., Mastering the handoff process (moving project tasks from one team to the next) is probably the hardest, but most crucial, element of successfully implementing a follow the sun model. HICSS09. The research focussed on two aspects: the optimal time zone difference and the natural ease of communication (i.e. While you wont all be in the same room for these meetings, video conferences are fairly easy to set up and schedule. This is where FTS potential gains a lot, as is evident in the bottom rows of the table. In the gaming and retail industries, for example, 24/7/365 support might be pretty standard. PjYIh$ 3lKPt[?7\p rNt[n@rS +@G9z|t- ]P$>(h)tQ c5+${._~;i$ X~,h XOjcL^W? ](Ohg2jFy0tz H`?d/r_@IEPCZGr H And when the shifts switch, you'll have each site hand off work to the next shift. Think of the home base as the product owner. According to Carmel [1], FTS has challenges such as coordination barriers, cultural differences, and communication difficulties depicted in Fig. FTS approach has only a handful of documented cases of industrial success because of its nature. The above principles allow FTS to be used in any knowledge work (not just software development). It is defined as the percentage of all of the calendar time (e.g., 24 * 7 = 168 hours available per week) that is used productively for work, so, a 40-hour workweek utilizes 23.8 percent of the calendar workweek, showing that there is a lot of room for calendar efficiency improvement. In an Agile based methodology, all major development activities (design, code, test and integrate) are carried out in every iteration cycle. Test the plan before implementation to ensure that hand-offs between sites will run smoothly and make tweaks to the processes as needed. Major lessons learned in the study that could improve FTS from their experience include: It was also observed that hand-offs between different sites were especially difficult in the weekends. At any given time only one team owns the product unlike other global configurations in which multiple locations can own different parts of the product. Several workflows seem to be using the FTS model, but in reality this is not always the case. PowToon is a free . Where are our customers primarily located? It is a model in which work from one site is handed over to another, which is many time zones away (for example, U.S.A to India), in order for the work to be advanced while one team rests for the night. 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. A survey of major approaches for accelerating new product development. A follow the sun model can help your organization provide 24/7/365 support to customers across the globe, regardless of time or location. Learn how to use a follow the sun model for your IT and cloud teams. HVKn0Hi[dh;>~K@ HhD^ @)+{J:=,q&U^yZVf|7Gv1$[l3/ S 29= 25~xZOFXO_/Y 9vO,sI:bqgj-1`tIfZ{L#D9t5@R\B/PN=@7c8@T5jF/0'?daCE]7K'e%JtQSe,86^8Gv8[G@2S7 ^fH!7x%7Zo>.Wckhb|j\p{>K"N{cn; If you have an online business or SaaS product, you probably sell your products or services globally. We have also elaborated in depth about the real world examples where FTS was applied.
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